Analysis for 'Viewability'

Integral Ad Science will provide its video viewability targeting segments to AudienceScience for inclusion in the company’s Helios Advertising Enterprise Advertising Software, the companies announced today. AudienceScience clients will be able to build campaigns that include specific video viewability levels based on Integral Ad Science’s data.

Videology announced this morning that its clients will be able transact video ad campaigns on a new viewability currency (“vCPM”) for a guaranteed price on guaranteed viewable impressions. The impressions are measured by third-parties Moat, DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science.

Clients can use the MRC viewability standard (50% of pixels on screen for at least 2 consecutive seconds) or the stricter Extended Viewability Standard (100% of pixels on screen for at least 50% of the video’s duration with audio on and not autoplay).

Moat has extended its measurement and reporting capabilities to include Watchwith’s in-program advertising within TV shows, under a new partnership announced by the companies today. Moat will use its MRC-accredited platform to measure and report in-program ads’ aggregate audience time spent and user engagement with in-program ads. The reporting will be enabled on both desktop and in mobile video apps.

Fraud in video advertising is a significant problem causing billions of dollars in losses throughout the industry. To help drive a common understanding and gain consensus around what should be done, last Thursday Videology and White Ops released a valuable new white paper, “Eradicating Bot Fraud: The Path to Zero Tolerance.”

The paper explains all the different causes of video ad fraud, focusing on bots, or non-human traffic, which are considered the most pervasive type of fraud. Bots distort the market because they trigger an ad view even though no human being ever actually saw the ad. Bots are active in all types of video, from long-tail to premium. Videology and White Ops found that a higher percentage of traffic at night contains bots and that users age 65+ are 69% more likely to be hosting bots through an outdated browser.

Teads, which specializes in “outstream” video ads, has partnered with Moat for real-time analytics on viewability for outstream video campaigns powered by Teads. Outstream video ads such as Teads’ “inRead” format can run against text-based content, thereby creating brand-new inventory for premium publishers.

Because inRead ads only play when in view on the screen for a defined amount of time, their viewability is already strong. Teads has advocated for stricter viewability. The Moat partnership gives Teads a custom dashboard to display video ads that have been completed. Teads said that early implementation has shown viewability and attention are nearly double Moat’s viewability benchmarks.

Since early 2015, digital video media buyers have felt tremendous pressure to deliver “viewable” impressions. Advertisers want to know, “Was my ad seen or did it at least have the opportunity to be seen?” There’s a gold rush of VC-backed tech companies clamoring to be the virtual pick and shovel providers for an industry that is hungry for viewability. With nascent measurement standards in flux and varying technical solutions, the industry is experiencing some turmoil.

The participants discussed the evolution of viewability standards, the challenges of consistently measuring viewability across devices, the complications resulting from Facebook and YouTube not allowing third-party viewability measurement, where viewability is heading over the next 12-18 months and much more.

Since the MRC released its viewability guidelines just over a year ago, the industry has made significant progress addressing the standard - from display to video and now mobile. But major challenges are still evident and will continue to be until all sides of the industry can agree on a solution. With many advertisers now demanding 100 percent viewability, inconsistent measurement across vendors, and publishers not fully understanding the methodology behind their viewability numbers - whose responsibility is it to finally slay the giant that is viewability?

Video viewability is broken - but not for the reasons you think. The way the industry measures viewability does not reflect actual human behavior, and it fails to meet advertisers' real need, which is making sure people actually see their ads. While ad-tech and viewability vendors, publishers, and agencies negotiate what should be considered "viewable" (pixels and time spent on-screen, etc.), actual people are moving on to mobile devices.

Viewability of video ads increased from 30% in Q3 '14 to 39% in Q4 '14, according to a new report by Integral Ad Science, which measures media quality across hundreds of billions of impressions. Viewability is defined by the MRC standard of 50% of an ad's pixels in the viewable space of the browser page, for at least 2 continuous seconds.

Vindico has released its Q2 '14 Adtricity rankings, with 45% of online video ad impressions receiving a grade of "A" or "B" up from 34% in its last rating in late 2013. "A" and "B" ratings are considered TV quality and are respectively defined by Vindico as "placed in high impact areas and excellently executed" and "often placed front and center, and generally well executed with minor deductions."

Viewability has emerged as one of the hottest topics in the online video industry this year, for good reason - video ads that aren't seen diminish the advertiser's ROI and undermine the integrity of the market.

However, the industry is addressing viewability and at the recent Video Ad Summit, IAB presented a session that dug into the details. Participants included Rob Brett (Viacom), Tal Chalozin (Innovid), David Gunzerath (MRC) and Julian Zilberbrand (Zenith Optimedia) with Matt Prohaska moderating.

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